Of Birdkids and Dragons
by ToxicElixir
Summary: What do you get when Total is in alaska with Akila? Well Angel asking for another pet, that's what. And when a Night Fury comes along how can she resist? Not at all a good summery.o o' Heh.
1. Chapter 1

**NOTE: The first two chapters are not mine, I adopted this story from_ ILoveJollyRanchers _Dark, Tum, and Red are hers.**

**Disclaimer:I do not own Maximum Ride or any of the Maximum Ride characters, or the story until Chapter three.**

_…_

Dark's POV

"Run faster!" I yelled to Tum. We skidded around another corner in the white hallway, narrowly avoiding yet another pack of Erasers intent on our capture.

"There!" Tum pointed at the exit. We burst through the doors of the dreaded School, blinking when the sun shone brightly in our eyes. Erasers rushed out of the building on all sides and ran toward us, snarling and cussing.

"Fly! Now!" I shrieked. Tum and I whipped out our reptilian-like wings and took off. My black wings flapped franticly, trying to gain lift.

Than I heard the scream.

"Dark!" I look down to see Tum being dragged down by an Eraser who had a death grip on her ankle, her leathery blue and yellow wings struggling with the extra weight.

"Go! I'll be fine, just go!" she pleaded. By now the Eraser had dragged her to the ground and about 100 more were surrounding her.

"No!" I bellowed, very unladylike. But I knew it was already too late. I cast one finale glance at Tum, who had went dragon and was fighting the wolf -men, setting them on fire and impaling some with her tail spikes. I smiled.

That's my girl. Never back down without a fight.

And finally, with a heavy heart, I changed forms and sped away, cutting through the night like a black bullet. _Don't worry Tum, I'll come back for you._

_Eventually._

…

_**8 Hours Later**_

I clumsy landed in the little clearing, my four clawed paws scrambling to grip the earth. I'm usually the calm and collected one, never showing fear or _too_ much of emotion.

This me on the outside right now: …...

Now the inside: ?%^**&%

See the difference

I sat on my butt, still in my dragon form, and felt a feeling of dread settling on my chest. Oh God, Tum was still trapped in that evil place, all alone. They were most likely doing all kinds of tests on her: running in mazes, flying in wind tunnels, and who knows what else. The last time we were there, a Jacket **(AN: what the dragons call Whitecoats) **named Jeb Batchelder had busted out all three of us, Red and I when we were seven and Tum when she was one . Four years later, he betrayed us. Tum and I were captured but Red escaped.

Another feeling of sadness washed over me. Red. He was my best friend and a big brother to Tum. After three years of being apart, we still don't know where he is.

"Nudge! Give it back!" My head snapped up in the direction of the voice. Young, male, in between seven and ten years old. I crept quietly towards the sound and heard more voices. I came across another clearing, this time a big field. In the middle of the field were six children.

Two of them, a dirty blond girl and a black haired boy, were sitting on a blanket and...kissing. A strawberry blond boy was leaning against a nearby tree and talking to another girl. This one looked to be a little younger than Tum and had curly blond hair. A spiky blond boy was chasing an African American girl, apparently after something she had.

"Come on Nudge! I'm hungry!" whined the boy. She turned around and waved what looked like a piece of fried chicken in his face.

"Well than come get it." the girl taunted.

That's when I noticed the food.

A giant food mountain of it was stacked on the blanket, more than enough to feed six kids. Or an extremely hungry dragon girl. But why did they have so much? My silent question was answered when the chicken wielding girl jumped high into the air and snapped out her tawny colored wings. She flapped a couple of times, than hovered in place.

They had wings too! Not the lizard ones my family and I had, but feathered like birds. I felt my teeth slide into place, allowing me to crack a toothy grin. This was good. Bird = prey. I already had a plan forming in my mind.

I would leap out into the clearing and spread my 18 foot wings, making myself bigger. After some hissing and spitting blue fire, the kids would become terrified by the giant black dragon and flee like the prey animals they are. Than I would gorge myself on the feast they left behind. I went over my foolproof plan in my head, very pleased with myself, when little Blondie went stiff. The others noticed this also, and rushed to her side.

"What is it, Angel?" the oldest blond asked. The girl blinked, than snapped her head to stare intently in my direction. I instinctively shrunk back into to the shadows.

"Something's here."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, or do I own Dark, Tum, Red, or the story(untill chapter three). Again I adopted the story. But the next chapter will be my work and from then on the story will be mine**

…**...**

Max's POV

"Maaaaax! Hurry up!" complained Nudge.

"I'm coming, hold your horses." I muttered. Fang chuckled and I glared at him.

It's been six months since the flock and I had returned from our Hawaiian adventure, and so far we haven't been attacked once.

But, as always, it didn't stay that way for long. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We have been crashing here at my mom's house for a while, trying to lead somewhat normal lives. You know, as normal as six flying kids can get. At least the younger ones were enjoying themselves; I on the other hand, was as twitchy as Iggy at a rock concert (Nudge discovered the band Paramore and demanded that we see them live. He almost had a nervous breakdown.).

Anyway, this morning, after an unholy breakfast of pancakes and bacon, Angel suggested that we go on a picnic for lunch.

Which brings us to the present, where Nudge is dragging my reluctant self out the door. I quickly stuffed my backpack with the remaining food on the counter, than sprinted out the door to join my family in the sky.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. God, flying is great. The feel of the wind in your feathers, the breeze on your face, the clean smell of... wait a minute.

"Ugh! Gazzy!" I yelled above the wind while holding my nose.

"My sinuses! They burn!"

"Gross!"

"That's just nasty."

The Gasman cackled and swooped to the back of our formation.

Out of the corner of my now watering eyes, I saw Fang come beside me.

"There's a clearing down there." he said, pointing to the ground. "We should land"

I nodded and started to dive, trying to hide my blush. Even though we were officially "together", there was still something about Fang that made my heart beat a little bit faster. Maybe it was how he always had my back, or how his black wings beat in sync with my brown ones. Or it might be his smile, his eyes, his touch, his _abs..._

My blush deepened. I really hopped Angel hadn't heard that.

As the rest of the flock gracefully landed behind me, I pulled the blanket from my backpack, spread it on the ground, and dumped the food on top.

"Dig in!" I said cheerfully to a hungry flock. About half the food was gone in under ten minutes.

Huh. That's a new recored.

"Nudge! Give it back!" huffed Gazzy. She giggled and raced away with the last piece of fried chicken and he chased after her. Angel plopped down by Iggy where he was leaned against a tree. They were probably talking about world domination.

Well, Angel probably was. Iggy was most likely talking about beach bunnies and honey mustard, not necessarily in that order.

That just left me and a certain dark eyed bird boy.

Fang scooted over to me and casually took my hand. My heart thudded in my chest.

"Are you OK? You seem tense." he whispered.

I sighed. "Ya, it's just... we haven't seen any sign of Erasers or the School for months. It makes me nervous."

He nodded slowly, than put an arm around my shoulders and squeezed. "I know what you mean. Just try not to worry so much, let the younger kids enjoy their vacation before it blows up in our faces."

Than he kissed me.

That boy knows me so well.

I turned my head sideways so we could kiss better for a minute or two, than broke away.

He smirked at me and I rested my head against his chest. Life was good.

Than I saw Angel stiffen.

Well crap. The flock and I were at her side in an instant.

"What's wrong, Angel?" I asked.

She blinked a few times, than whirled around and focused on something across the clearing.

"Something's here." she whispered.

Everyone froze.

Than at that exact moment, something crashed out of the woods and into our field.

I'll give you three guesses on what it was.

Erasers? No.

M-Geeks.?Nah.

A giant bacon monster? I wish... but no dice.

It was a _dragon. _

"No way..." I breathed just as Gazzy yelled, "Cool!"

The dragon was pitch black and had to be at least thirteen feet long. It had the body of a salamander, but walked with a cat-like grace, it's greenish blue eyes full of caution. Down on all fours, the giant lizard crept out of it's hiding place.

Angel took a step forward.

The dragon stopped in mid-step.

All of a sudden, it heaved itself onto it's stubby hind legs, snapped open it's humongous black wings, and _ROARED. _

"U and A!" I screamed, barely able to hear myself over the beast. The flock and I shot into the air to get away from the freaking dragon. Well, everyone except a certain mind reader.

"Angel! Get your butt up here! NOW!" I barked while hovering a few hundred feet in the air. She didn't respond, but simply continued to advance toward the animal.

It narrowed it's eyes at her and growled.

Angel looked up at me. "It's OK, Max. She's just hungry!" she called. I groaned and dove down to land behind her.

"Exactly!" I hissed. "And you look like a little blond crouton! Now come on!"

She shook her head and held out a piece of ham. "Just watch." she urged.

The dragon seemed to calm down when it saw the meat and it's weird ears perked up. It took a tentative step forward.

"Angel..." Fang warned. By now the rest of the flock had assembled on the ground.

She ignored him and waved the ham a little bit. "It's alright. Come here, we're not going to hurt you." she said in a sweet voice. The dragon's eyes were wary, but it came closer to us.

And closer.

And closer.

Now it was only a few yards away.

"That's it. Good girl." Angel muttered. The black beast leaned towards us and opened it's mouth.

Ha! It didn't even have teeth! What was it going to do, gum us to death?

Than at the last second, pointy white teeth popped out of it's gums and the dragon snatched the ham out of Angel's hand. We all watched with wide eyes as it savored the processed meat.

"Can someone _please_ be as kind to tell me what's going on?" Iggy asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He gasped when Angel sent him a mental image. "Holy-"

"Language!" I interrupted.

"See? She was just hungry." Angel said. She walked up to the beast and scratched it's ears. It bent down and purred.

"Angel, sweetie," I said carefully, "just what exactly is it?"

Her face scrunched up. "Well, I can't exactly read her mind, only emotions and things that she pushes at me. But I _think_ her name is Dark. And she's an experiment from the School, just like us!"

"Dark" looked up and grunted. I guess that was a confirmation.

"OMG! This is, like, soooo cool! I can't believe we found a real live dragon! I thought they were imaginary, like unicorns and stuff! Does this mean that unicorns exist too? I want a pet unicorn, but I think that they would be hard to carry. And that horn would poke you all the time. Ooooh, what if it had wings? Than it could follow us! What do unicorns eat anyway? Probably grass and stuff. Ew! What would grass taste like? Remember that one time when Iggy dared Gazzy to eat dirt? That was sooo gross! Did it-" Nudge was cut off when Fang slapped a hand over her mouth. She peeled his hands away, than rushed over to where Dark had flipped onto her back. Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel rubbed her belly. She purred even louder.

"What do you think Dr. M will say when she sees this?" Iggy mused. "Oh ya! About that! We thought that we would pick up a dragon from the pound for Angel, since Total's in Alaska with Akila. Got to love them animals!"

Wait, what?

"No." I said pointedly to Angel.

She pouted. "Please, Max? Dark's not dangerous! She has no where to go. What if the School's after her?"

I threw my hands in the air. "Exactly my point! If she is being chased by Whitecoats, she'll lead them strait to us! How do you know that she's not dangerous? You said yourself that you can't read her mind clearly! And in case you haven't noticed, SHE JUST TRIED TO EAT US!"

And that's when Angel whipped out the Bambi eyes. I gulped.

Oh no.

She smiled sweetly. **Oh, yes.** _(AN: bold is Angel in someone's head.)_

Now all three of the younger kids, and dragon, had set their adorable sights on me. I turned to Fang.

"Help me out here." I said desperately.

He shrugged and pointed to where Dark was wiggling on the ground. "That doesn't seem very dangerous to me. It's actually kind of cute."

I stared at him openmouthed. Fang thought something was cute?

"Ok, fine! She can come with us. But you're in charge of her Angel." I muttered. Angel and Nudge squealed and Iggy and Gazzy slapped high fives.

Dark grunted and Angel turned to her.

"Oh! Dark says that she really appreciates us helping her. And we smell nice." she giggled. Everyone else cracked up, even Fang and I.

That's when Nudge screamed.

…**...**

Dark's POV

I grunted to get the mind reader's attention.

"Oh! Dark says that she really appreciates us helping her. And we smell nice." she giggled. It was true, they all smelled like the sky. And ham.

Suddenly, the little brown one screamed.

"Erasers!" Max yelled, just as about 25 of the smelly wolf-men landed in the clearing. I shot into the air before anyone could stop me.

_**Dark! Where are you going? **_

_Watch this. It's going to be hilarious. _

I angled my giant wings downwards and started to dive back down to the Earth. I saw the blind and the talkative one fighting about 6 Erasers at once. Somewhere a bomb went off. The lovebirds were taking on 7 each and the blond siblings battled the rest. One of the wolf-men lashed out at my mind reader. She went down.

"ROAR!" I shot a pulse of blue fire at the group, sending Erasers flying through the air.

"NIGHT FURY!" one of them screamed. I landed on him. Hard.

Roaring again, I swept a couple more aside with my tail and plucked one from the ground with my mouth. Teeth retracted, of course.

He shrieked and I flung him high into the air, catching him before he fell to the ground. I laughed, but it came out like a choking sound.

This is what I do for fun.

"Dark, put him down." The leader said warily. I grunted.

_Do I have to?_

Angel laughed. "Yes you do. Now put him down."

I sighed and spat the now wet Eraser on the ground. He whimpered, than took off, his awkward wings flapping franticly.

I made a face. _Ew. He tastes like dog food. _

This caused Angel to giggled again and the flock to look at her questionably. She shrugged.

"I guess we should get going." Max said, eyeing the setting sun. "Mom will be wondering where we are."

She took a running start, than leaped into the air and rose into the sky. So graceful.

The rest of us followed.

After 15 minutes of traveling and the initial shock of me flying wore off, (OMG! That's so cool! Can I ride her? _Uh, no_) we finally landed behind a small house in the woods. It looked cozy.

"Stay here." Max instructed me. I kneeled down and Angel scratched my head.

_Self...control...melting..._

I flipped onto my back so she could give me a belly rub

_Ahhh..._

Max disappeared into the house for a few minutes, then came out with three new people. The first was what looked like a mini-Max, but a couple years younger and with brown hair. Standing besides her was a middle-aged women with kind brown eyes and laugh lines. I liked her already. Both of them were starring at me with wide eyes and opened mouths. I gave them a toothy grin. The third person was...

I shot up and narrowed my eyes into slits, snarling.

There, with his pale face and creepy pedophile mustache, was none other than Jeb Batchelder.

And I was just about ready to kill him.

…**...**

**When you picture Dark, just think of Toothless but a little smaller and more girly-like.**

**As for Tum and Red, lets just say you will find out soon enough... **

**R&R!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Ok people from this point of the story on is going to be my work, Dark, Tum, and Red are not mine **

Dark's POV

I slandered forwards my growls loud and threatening, Jeb looked calm and calculating, which angered me further.

"Dark, Jeb is a friend, maybe." Angel said, but I was beyond the point to listen to the mind reader. With precision and grace I pounced, knocking Jeb over and planting my paw on his chest.

"Hello Dark. It's good to see you." Jeb said calmly, I snarled `Believe me the feeling is mutual. ` I thought baring my teeth. I could already feel the gas build up in my throat, as I opened my jaws to blast him half-way into next week! All Jeb did was stare at me with those cold calculating eyes of his,

"Wait Dark don`t!" Angel shouted. _Goodbye _I thought, just about to ignite the gas in my throat, what I didn`t expect was a frying pan to the back of the head. Which caused me to lose the gas, I didn`t register the pain, I was in kill mode, but I did turn to see who hit me.

It was the woman with laugh lines, it seems when I was distracted by the one-way thought mode of kill Jeb, she had ran inside and grabbed the pan.

I stared at the woman, blinking a couple times, my mind was a little jumbled, part of it was still on kill-mode while the other part was processing my thoughts. Snorting I narrowed my eyes, and turned back to Jeb snarling, before jumping off him. An idea had hit me; he was going to tell me everything.

But before that could happen I would have to revert back to my human form, which I couldn`t do in front of everyone. Why? Two hints.

My dragon form is larger than my human form

Just imagine what had happened to my clothes when I shifted

I turned towards Angel, _Could I get some clothes? _

"Um sure" Angel said confused relaying my message to Max. Angel then ran inside and grabbed a pale green tank and blue denim jeans, snatching these items in my mouth (teeth retracted of course); I gave Jeb a death glare.

_Try to run and your toast_ I thought snarling before bounding into the woods. When I figured I as far enough into the woods so no one would see me, I changed. It was a painful process, but one I had gotten used to, and had done many times.

First I pulled on the jeans, before making long slits in the back of the tank and yanking it on pushing my wings through the back.

Standing bare-foot I stalked back to the flock, and Jeb, me coming out of the woods defiantly made an impression on the flock seeing most had stares of disbelieve written all over their faces. Walking straight up to Jeb I grabbed his shirt pulling him towards the house wall, and slamming him against it my face inches from him.

"Ok Jeb start talking." I snarled, "I want to know why you did it. Why did you break us out of that God-forsaken place, only to lead them right to us so we could be dragged back, and left to rot." I hissed my eyes probably thin angry slits boring into him. And just like always he gave me that calm calculating look that always seemed to stay on his features.

That look was starting to annoy the heck out of me, I swear I just wanted to wipe that look from his face. Truth be told it was disorienting, I was the predator, he was in the prey spot, logically speaking he shouldn't be the one looking like he holds the scale of life and death to your life.

"It was all part of the plan, as it was with The Flock's case to. Both groups needed a taste of freedom, and then needed to be brought back." He said in his always calm voice.

"Ha, you think I'm just going to follow some plan of yours?" I hissed, "I am the daughter of fire and sky, the very element of battle prowess. You, Jeb, have been my enemy every since the day you led them to us. You have no say in my future, and you owe me, Tum, and Red for what you did to us." I growled. My rational side of my brain was working and all through my `chat` with Jeb, it was persisting that I couldn't kill Jeb yet, I still needed him. For what you may ask?

He was going to help me break out Tum and find Red of course.

**Ok how'd ya like the chapter? Loved it, hated it?, either way review it! Also one more thing, I need help with plot ideas and I need you, the readers, to help me out. So please, if or when you review add any ideas, it would be most helpful! **

**R&R**

**-ToxicE**


	4. Chapter 4

***peeks out behind Dark* Hi readers! *quickly ducks behind Dark to avoid being hit by various flying objects* I know, I know it's taking me forever to update this, but I already explained on my page that my computer usage was limited sorry *puts on apologetic smile* On with the next chapter!**

I stepped back from Jeb letting go of the collar of his shirt as I did. "Ok I want to know what the heck happening here." Max said, I turned to see an irritated look on her features. `Da da da I'm most likely dead.` I thought "Um, surprise?" I replied smiling.

"Ok start talking dragon." Max said giving me a flat stare, "Ok fine I guess you guys deserve an explanation."

I glared, getting my bearings back and reminding myself that _**I **_was the predator here. I really had to stop acting like prey, maybe it was because Max was only part bird, and her human part was defiantly predator like.

So I explained everything that happened, from the tests, to the hope of escape. I told them about Jeb freeing us and then betraying us and dragging Tum and I back to the school while Red somehow managed escape. Lastly I told them about my recent escape, through clenched teeth as I thought of Tum alone in the school with those Jackets.

"Ok birdkids now it's your turn." I said after finishing my story, "I don't give out my life story without getting something in return, now spill."

I stated crossing my arms and giving them a look that I wouldn't let the subject drop until they told me their story. Max gave me a dead-planned look as if she seriously doubted my sanity. I in return gave her my best glare, eyes narrowed as if contemplating her value to me alive. Of course I had an awesome glare, if I do say so myself, that had made weaker men, and women, falter. She didn't waver and somewhere in my mind she gained a respect point.

"You really shouldn't trust people so readily." Max said referring to my telling of my life-story.

"You really shouldn't underestimate my deviousness. For all you know that story was a really thought out lie, and even if I had told the truth, you should consider my motivations behind it." I shot back smirking slightly.

"Still I'm not just going to plain out tell you my life story just because you told me yours." Max countered.

I shrugged, "I already know the basics of your life from Jeb's comment. Your life is basically a mirror image to mine. Sure yours probably has different details but the outlines are the same." I shot back. Max stayed silent `Dragon: 1 Birdkid: 0` I thought laughing mentally enjoying my little game.

"I need to think." I said randomly blinking before I start to pace my long tail flicking back and forth as I do. `So I know the corridors of the school, I know where they'll probably be keeping Tum. Now how would I go about breaking into the school? Dang-it! Curses to the great dragon above, how in the world am I supposed to figure this out? The only things I looked for during my years at the school was a way to get _out _not back in.` During my though process I let out a long-winded hiss baring my teeth slightly in frustration.

"Jeb!" I growled turning to face the stoic-looking male, "Tell me how to break into the school." I commanded eyes narrow slits. "If you don't I swear to the great dragon above I'm going to rip you apart piece by piece slowly, and leave you for crow-food." I hissed toning my threat down slightly since there were younger observants in hearing-range.

Little did I know what the ahem `innocent` looking younger ones, could actually do in a fight.

**Gah sorry for ending the chapter here, but I didn't want to wait any longer to post a chapter on this. Also sorry for the long wait for such an unworthy piece of fox-dung short chapter. **

**Ok since I really need ideas for this, and I know people are reading this from the favs and alerts. I won't start typing the next chapter until I get at least 3 or 4 reviews With at least an idea or two? Ok please?**

**-ToxicE**


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